PEP BB nest.sand.dishes - Wash Dishes by Hand

This was my first BB that was actually kind of hard. I’m more used to using unlimited soap and hot water than I thought. I don’t mind hand-washing and I don’t mind using Bronner’s soap, but three gallons is t very much water and I was using it at room temp. If I were doing this again, I’d heat some of it.

I filled a three-gallon glass carboy with water so that I couldn’t go over. It was kind of a drag to use, but it worked out.

I don’t have a traditional dish-pan, so I used my bean pot to hold soapy water and cycled the dirty dishes through it. A few plates and pan lids and stuff wouldn’t fit, so just scooped it out as needed. And then rinsing was the real chore without using up all the water. Some dishes felt a little oily after this process, so I wiped them down with a paper towel until they seemed clean and out them in the drainer.

Once all my “normal” dishes were done, I decided to play with the two cast iron pans that I had dirty, not really expecting it to work without hot water. I had about 3/4 of a gallon left and so I scraped them first with a bamboo edge and then used a little water and some scrubbing in several small iterations. And it actually did work out. The bigger pan was still a little oily, but that just goes in to the next layer of the season. (Those two pans are in the hot stove so you won’t see them in the pic of the finished dishes below.)

Hello,

this is my submission for: PEA-Badge-Nest  - washing dishes by hand with biodegradable soap and saving the water for another Badge.

this is the link to the soap I used: https://ca.melaleuca.com/productstore/cleaning-and-laundry/lemon-brite-hand-dishwashing-liquid

Hey skip team! After a big Halloween party, I had many pans and pots to wash. I used 2 scrubbies and a tiny bit of doTERRA's new dishsoap, a plant-based soap with essential oils. *sniff* mmm! dished smell so good.

I was super skeptical about this, having worked as a restaurant pot-washer, where TONS of soap and a constant stream of scalding water are the order of the day. Because I was feeling nervous, I started with the scraping step from wash a dish without soap and I had really good results. Used a wee bit of Dr. Bronners and exactly 3 liters of water (~.8 gallons), two of my 1.5 L kettles.

I don't have a dishwasher, and I wash dishes daily, so this might take a couple tries to meet volume requirements.

Daily, I use about 2 qts room temp water (red-handle jug), 1+ qts boiling water (from glass kettle on stove), and 1-2 qts from blue dispenser for rinsing larger items that don't fit in dish pan well, I think that's about a gallon each time?

So I give you three days of dishes for three-ish gallons. I use blue Dawn dish soap that goes into our greywater system.

https://classiccleaners.net/11-amazing-uses-for-original-blue-dawn-dish-soap/#:~:text=Expert%20cleaners%20at%20Classic%20Cleaners,and%20it%20contains%20no%20phosphates.

Oh no!! I've always been told blue dawn (but not the other colors) is good! Heck, they use it to wash oil-slicked birds!

Hmm, okay, this is going to be even more educational than I expected. How about Dr. Bronners baby unscented? That's available where I live. I have very low scent tolerance, so changing products is always a gamble for me. Thanks!

Dawn Dish soap has small amounts of petrochemicals: https://upgradedhome.com/is-dawn-dish-soap-safe-for-septic-systems/  There are many types of Dawn Blue.  The advertising says that it is septic safe  but I have my doubts, long term.  You asked about Dr Bronners.  Yes it is safe.  You will need to cite the website because it is not on the bottle.  Best of luck with the next go.  

Cool. I finally tracked down a link, I'm going to post it here so I can find it again in a few days: https://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/2602-DrBronners18in1HempPureCastileSoapBabyMild/

Question: how many dishes fit in a dishwasher drying rack? I just got the ebook which is awesome, and I want to come to the signing, so I'm trying to get bb20 right away! (Paul is such a master of motivation!)

Thanks,
Alexa.

We normally wash our dishes right after use, which prevents us from needing any soap at all. But here is the link that shows the ingredients and eco-certifications for the product:

https://shop.drbronner.com/collections/all/products/peppermint-pure-castile-liquid-soap#scent=Citrus

Replaced Dawn with Dr Bronners, resubmitting. Three days worth, less than 3 gallons total used.

I had a large-ish load of dishes to do this evening so here are some pictures. We have a dishwasher but we don't use it, we do the dishes by hand every day.

I used dish soap from the Unscented Company. It is certified biodegradable from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Canada, test number 301 for ready biodegradability. You can read about the certification on the OECD Website

Our dishwasher's pump broke last month so It seemed like the best time to actually do this one because I would've kept putting it off.

I washed everything over a 20qt (5 gallon) storage box. The goal was to keep the water under half as that should be only 2.5 gallons. I was fortunate enough to not have anything really greasy and kept everything below the holes drilled on the sides(it's a long story, but the water never got that high so no cheating here)
Soap used:
Dr Bronner's baby unscented castile soap

Today's dishes...

So I had a ton of tupperware leftover from my chili, so it was dish time. I used Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds soap. Here is the link that describes it: https://shop.drbronner.com/collections/all/products/sal-suds-biodegradable-cleaner. It is an all natural, biodegradeable soap with no dyes or preservatives.
For my water, I had a leftover 1 gallon milk jug that I used to measure out the water, I did 2 and almost 3/4 jugs, to be below the 3 gallon threshold.

Alright, so this is take two of my dishes attempt. I corrected two previous errors: 1) I had over a dishwasher full of dishes and 2) I posted pics of my soap, however I ran out of Sal's Suds and grabbed some 9 element from the store. Here is the link https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Dishwashing-Eucalyptus-Cleaner-Bottles/dp/B08QTZSCPC

I have used 9 elements before, it doesnt produce a ton of suds, but cuts through most grease and stains.